Sunday, May 13, 2018

Happy Mothers' Day to your mothers and queens

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! Especially to the mom of my kids, Debby, and the mother of my granddaughter, Kim.

When you think of great mom's, who
springs to mind first? Why, Queen Elizabeth of course!

In 1991 I was a rookie play-by-play announcer for the Baltimore Orioles.I kept a daily journal that year and sold it as a book."It's Gone!...No, wait a minute"(my classic home run call unfortunately) was published by Villard and released in ’93.It’s available on Amazon or on a remainder table near you. Her Majesty attended an Orioles game. Here is certainly the only Queen Elizabeth baseball story you'll ever read:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1991, BALTIMORE

A typical day really, except that the
queen of England and the president of the United States attended the
game. They saw the A’s win 6-3, although Randy Milligan hit his first
home run of the year and then his second.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His
Royal Highness Prince Philip are visiting the United States and wanted
to view something that represented the “epitome of America”. That meant
either the Shopping Channel or baseball. So our little ol’ ballpark on
Thirty-third Street got the nod. The
weather was glorious, the traffic horrendous, and the crowd merely
moderate (32,501) to see this historic occasion (The queen was not as
big a draw as free wristbands.)

The
entourage arrived at 6:30 via motorcade and were whisked into a private
reception hosted by club owner Eli S. Jacobs (whom I have yet to meet,
by the way). The VIP party, which also included
Mrs. Bush, baseball commish Fay Vincent (who told me before the game
that the role of the commissioner in affairs such as these is “to be
seen and then leave”), Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Mrs. Secretary
of Defense, the Governor of Maryland, the British Foreign Secretary, and
a number of the queen’s personal valets, secretaries, and foot stools.
They all dined on crab cakes and hot dogs. (What, no crumpets and
nachos??).

Everyone
lingered over dinner for fifteen minutes, and then the royal party
moved on to the Orioles dugout to greet the players of both teams.

I did not get to meet the queen. Jon Miller and I were on the air describing the proceedings. At
7:20 a receiving line of players was rushed through (viewed by the
crowd on DiamondVision), and to the horror of the Secret Service, the
president escorted Queen Elizabeth (or “Sausage” as Prince Philip calls
her) up the top step into the on-deck area in full view of the masses. Personally,
I feel Harold Baines would be in greater danger than the queen, but the
Secret Service men held their breath just the same. The crowd roared its approval.

From there the royal party repaired back to Mr. Jacobs’ sky box on the mezzanine level just to the left of the press box. They
sat comfortably behind bulletproof glass as a high school chorus
mangled “God Save the Queen” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” over a sound
system wracked by feedback.

They stayed for two whole innings, and I
sort of felt bad because they were two very boring innings. Five walks,
little action. Really, Your Highness, baseball is not that dull! I
wanted her to stay longer, but by 8:45 the motorcade had shuttled her
away. I
also was hoping to have her stop by our booth and possibly read the
“Esskay Meats Out-of-Town Scoreboard,” but that was not to be. See if I
vote for her in the next election!

All in all it was a very exciting night.
In three previous years in the minors the most important dignitary I
ever saw attend a game was the Phillie Phanatic.

15 comments
:

This wasn't the queen's first brush with American sport (using the English singular) -- and the other example also came in Maryland. In October 1957, she attended a football game at College Park between Maryland and North Carolina. She sat in a front-row box as the Terrapins won 21-7.

Not that the queen cared (nor likely you all these years later), but the game also marked the return of coach Jim Tatum to College Park after he had guided Maryland to national prominence -- a national title, three unbeaten regular seasons, a Sugar Bowl upset of top-ranked Tennessee. He left for UNC following the 1955 season.

Re Daphne's momThat was Millicent Martin, who gained worldwide fame in the early 1960's as the beautiful and talented female performer on the groundbreaking topical British show That Was The Week That Was (David Frost also made his name there). There was an American version for a little while back around the JFK assassination.Check out some tapes of TWTWTW and you'l' see what an amazing performer Gertrude Moon was.(and for my money, Daphne's dad was a better Hannibal Lector than Anthony Hopkins).

We lived in Newfoundland at the time, and we all heard Her Majesty was visiting Canada. She would even visit our island. This was part of a tour of the Commonwealth. She was only a few years into her reign.

We stood by a road and watched her black Rolls Royce approach. She was sitting on our side of the Queens Road and wearing a white glove. She waved a bit. Later, she made a downtown appearance, and Prince Philip was there as well.

This just barely touches on today's blog, but I recently came across your ex-partner Jon Miller's impression of Vin Scully. Pitch perfect, so to speak. And Miller does Vinny doing a Farmer John commercial in Spanish. Ole my gosh!

Did Vin like people doing him? Famous people can be a little thin skinned about that sort of thing. I know Carson didn't like Rich Little too-accurate version of Johnny

Her Majesty has a major scheduling conflict this Saturday -- Harry's wedding or the Preakness. We know she's more interested in horses than people. I picture her at the reception, peering down at her phone.

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Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created three series. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and Dodger Talk. He hosts the podcast HOLLYWOOD & LEVINE

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